Very interesting. In wartime you do what is necessary to survive. I used to have a book where a man recounts having his father tattoo Popeye on his arm as a child during the blitz in London so that his dad could easily describe him to authorities if they became separated during a bombing.

I recall reading that Gerald Scarfe used gas masks like that as the inspiration for the characters he called "The Frightened Ones" that were in the video that accompanied "Goodbye Blue Sky" from "The Wall."

As nightmare inducing as the gas mask, nerve agents are not to be farked with.

For instance, only bad placement and incompetence in mixing the chemicals kept the death toll in the Tokyo subway sarin gassing from being far more deadly than it was. I'm just glad we're getting rid of VX, that stuff is pants-shiattingly terrifying.

I grew up on military bases all over the place. We would have drills, in school, on what to do when, (not if), the Commies attacked us. Things like, how to play dead so they don't capture you, what to say if you were captured, what not to say if you were captured, and my favourite (even though everyone knew it was useless) "Duck and Cover". One of my memories from 3rd grade was an air-raid drill where they packed us all into a closet and made us sit in a fetal tuck for 20 minutes. My dad was the hyper-vigilant, anti-commie, super-patriot type and we would even have some of these drills at home. Now, if I had grown up in the 50's or early 60's that would have made some farking sense, but this was the 70's and 80's when I was put thru this type of militaristic psycho-drama. Were any other military brats put thru this or were my parents just farking nuts?

Jixa:I grew up on military bases all over the place. We would have drills, in school, on what to do when, (not if), the Commies attacked us. Things like, how to play dead so they don't capture you, what to say if you were captured, what not to say if you were captured, and my favourite (even though everyone knew it was useless) "Duck and Cover". One of my memories from 3rd grade was an air-raid drill where they packed us all into a closet and made us sit in a fetal tuck for 20 minutes. My dad was the hyper-vigilant, anti-commie, super-patriot type and we would even have some of these drills at home. Now, if I had grown up in the 50's or early 60's that would have made some farking sense, but this was the 70's and 80's when I was put thru this type of militaristic psycho-drama. Were any other military brats put thru this or were my parents just farking nuts?

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Remember that the 70s and early 80s coontil Reagan) were times where the Russians were ahead of us in everything. Carter made us victims and most of the world hated us (sound familiar?). It wasn't until Reagan that we started to see a turnaround in attitudes. Rambo, Chuck Norris and that movie where everyone world gold lame suits and had rockets on their dirtbikes, etc.